PPP Party - Pumpkins

Last night for mutual we had our Personal Progress Party with a pumpkin theme for Halloween! The Young Men actually invited us to carve pumpkins with them tonight, and we gladly accepted. Everyone brought their own pumpkin (or we provided a few for some kids we knew couldn't afford it), we leaders provided carving tools and we let them loose.

For our personal progress portion of the night, I just pulled the YW out one by one and sat down with them for about 5 minutes to discuss how they are coming along with personal progress. We also did a little bit of planning for our upcoming Young Women in Excellence Night. We are hosting an Oscar themed night, inspired by this blog post, and I am really excited. So we asked each girl to begin thinking about what value she would like to speak about and to think of a woman in the ward who emulates that value. Some girls knew right a way, and some need extra time to think it over. It should be a great night.
 
Our pumpkin carving went a little over time because we have some pretty creative youth in our ward.

Yes, there was a lot of pretend stabbing going on. It could not be avoided.

It was a great night that helped our YM and YW bond. 

Stake Youth Halloween party

Last night for mutual (which was Wednesday instead of Tuesday) our Stake Youth leaders put on a party for the youth. Our ward building was chosen this year to host the party. We just had to open up the building for them and they did the rest: food, decorating, everything. The theme this year was a harvest festival, so they encouraged everyone to wear their best western clothes, we had chili and hot dogs, and they brought in a square dance caller to lead the music. Even though this event usually includes dancing, all the youth, even the 12 and 13 year olds, were invited (usually dances are reserved for youth 14 and up). The stake did a great job and everything turned out wonderfully. I think some of the youth were disappointed that they didn't get to wear their Halloween costumes or get to dance to pop music, but overall I think everyone ended up having a good time.

One of our young women turned 16 this week! So at the dance we passed around a little notebook and had some adults write in their favorite dating advice. At the end of the night we made a special announcement introducing the newest eligible young lady in our stake. Our lovely YW president put together a little basket full of orange goodies to give to her with a sign reading "Orange you glad you're 16?" (similar to this). It was really cute.

Party Planning

Last night for mutual we did some party planning. We sort of volunteered our YW group to be in charge of the ward Halloween party this year. This is always a big party with great turnout for our ward, so I think it's important that it does get put on, and since no one else seemed to be stepping up to take charge, we did just that. We decided this would count as a service project :)  So last night we figured out everything we would need food wise and entertainment wise and made assignments. It sounds like its going to be a lot of fun, and hopefully all the girls will do wonderfully at the things they are assigned (running games and decorating). We will also be doing an encore performance of our One Act Play since a lot of the ward wasn't able to make it to the original performance. The girls are excited about that. I'll let you know how it turns out!

One Act Play Wrap Up

Tonight was our performance of our One Act Play at the stake center along with all the other wards in the stake. All the shows were wonderful! We have a very creative stake, which isn't too surprising since we live next to Hollywood. We spent the last 3 mutuals and a few nights in between preparing and rehearsing for the show, and it turned out great! I'm so proud of our youth and everyone in the ward who participated.

Sisters ready to go

Getting Zombie makeup

Zombies!

Thriller Dance-Opening Number

Thriller Dance

Our main zombie, R.M.

Surpise! We won first place!!  We also won best script and best costumes. 

 Our prize was a box of candy bars!

This was a great experience, even if our stake did throw it together kind of last minute. I'm so glad our ward got to participate.